Words Set Me Free

The Story of Young Frederick Douglass

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday 

hosted today by Jean Little Library

and joins It's Monday! What are you reading? at Teacher Mentor Texts

Simon & Schuster - Paula Wiseman Books

(pub. 1.3.2012) 32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Lesa Cline-Ransome

     and Illustrator:  James Ransome

C haracter: Frederick Douglass

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "Born to a slave mother and a father he never knew, Frederick Bailey had few prospects as a six-year-old boy in Maryland in the 1820s. The turn of his fate was the kindness of Missus Auld, the wife of his master. She took the time and care to teach young Frederick first his letters and then how to read them. Opening doors he could not have even imagined, words set young Frederick free.

       What life held for Frederick was to change the world - Frederick changed his name to Frederick Douglass and became one of the first leaders of the antislavery movement. Based on Frederick Douglass' own Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, this is the inspiring story of the power of the individual."

        

T antalizing taste: 

   "I may not have known how to read, but I knew that if learning made me no longer want to be a slave, then I would secure my freedom one letter at a time...

    With a brick and a lump of chalk was first how I practiced my letters. Scratched them all along the bricked streets and wooden fences of Baltimore. P looked like a sail on one of the ships, L was a leg with a big foot. Two sticks crossed in the middle, that was X."

          

and something more: Lesa Cline-Ransome includes a wonderful tribute to libraries in the dedication of this book: "Thanks to all of the libraries - Malden Public Library, New York Public Library, Adriance Memorial Library, and Starr Library - that have opened my world to words and books and freedom."

     And, on Lesa Cline-Ransome's website, she writes about her mother and early influential trips to the library: "I consider myself very lucky to have grown up with a mother who loved to read. Each week my mom would take me with her to our local library so that she could stock up on books. As I grew older I would venture off into the children’s section and gather up on my own collection to check out. Through my mother I realized that reading could become a wonderful escape and writing even more so."

     I too was very fortunate to have a mother who often took me to the library and shared her love of reading with me. Here's to libraries and librarians and people in our lives who share with us their love of books and reading!

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Jazz Age Josephine

Dancer, Singer, who's that, who?

Why, that's MISS Josephine Baker, to you!

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday 

hosted today by Gathering Books

Atheneum Books for Young Children

(Simon and Schuster)

(pub. 1.3.2012)  40 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Jonah Winter

     and Illustrator:  Marjorie Priceman

C haracter: Josephine Baker

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "She can Bunny Hug and Grizzly Bear. She can Turkey Trot and do the Charleston. 

       It's the 1920s, and the world is alive with the sounds of this new music called jazz. Everyone get up and dance! (Wait, not everyone.) 

       Josephine has all the moves, but she also has dark skin and some think that means she should stay in the shadows - or only play the clown. But that simply will not work for Miss Josephine. Instead she dances her way into big shows, onto big stages. She dances her way to New York and Paris. She dances her way out of poverty and into stardom..."

        

T antalizing taste: 

 "You see, the shack where she lived, 

        it didn't have no heat.

Things were sometimes so bad,

there wasn't nothin' to eat.

She slept on the floor,

newspapers for a sheet -

rats crawlin' all around,

a-nibblin' at her feet.

'Josephine,' her grandma said,

'I got a fairy tale for you.

           'Josephine, oh Josephine,

            this story's 'bout a girl like you.

Someday you're gonna be a princess -

you know what Granny says is true.'"

          

and something more: I was fascinated to learn more about Josephine Baker in Jonah Winter's Author's Note at the back of Jazz Age Josephine: "As her performing days were tapering off, Josephine adopted twelve children from around the world and called them the 'Rainbow Tribe.' Her commitment to racial integration did not stop here. In 1963, she spoke at the same civil rights convention in Washington, D.C., where the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. made his famous speech, 'I Have a Dream.'... During her funeral procession through Paris, more than 20,000 mourners lined the streets." Josephine overcome obstacles and injustices, and became the adored person her grandmother inspired her to be.

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The Brothers Kennedy

John * Robert * Edward
 
This post is part of Nonfiction Monday
hosted today by The Cat and the Fiddle

 

Simon & Schuster 
Books for Young Readers

(pub. 1.26.2010)

40 pages
 
A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: KATHLEEN KRULL
      and Illustrator : AMY JUNE BATES

C haracters:  John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Edward Kennedy

 
O verview from book flap: 

      "Three extraordinary men lived three extraordinary lives, but first they were just brothers. John, Robert, and Edward were raised with the belief that they could change things for the better, and one by one, they did just that.  Through tragedies and triumphs these men worked to right the wrongs they saw around them [and] they couldn't have done it without one another."

T antalizing taste:
      "In 2008 Edward's doctors warned him that he was too ill to travel. But back in the 1960s his brother Robert had predicted that a black president would be elected within forty years.  Edward was not going to miss seeing Barack Obama accept his presidential nomination.
      'For me this is a season of hope,' Edward said in his own speech that night. 'New hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many, and not just for the few.'"
     ...Hope, compassion, and loyalty - the brothers Kennedy inspired these in one another.
     And so they have inspired others ever since."

and something more:   Kathleen Krull's terrific picture book biography, The Brothers Kennedy, weaves together the stories of the three brothers and explains the significant influence of their parents and extended family. The back matter of the book provides more information about their considerable contributions.  
      I had forgotten that President John Kennedy started the Peace Corps "as a way of bringing hope to the poorest countries in the world," and it "is still going strong after almost fifty years, with some two hundred thousand volunteers having served." I'm proud to add that my niece will soon be leaving for Nicaragua to serve in the Peace Corps.  As Robert Kennedy said, "Each time a man [or woman] stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope."

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Biblioburro

A True Story from Columbia
This post is part of Nonfiction Monday
hosted today by Apples With Many Seeds

 

Beach Lane Books (Simon & Schuster) 

(pub. 6.8.2010)

32 pages
 
A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor and illustrator: JEANETTE WINTER

C haracter: Luis Soriana who lives in La Gloria, Columbia

 
O verview from book flap: 

      "Join Luis and his trusty burros, Alfa and Beto, as they travel far and wide to bring treasured books to eager children in the remote villages of rural Columbia.

     Based on the inspiring life of a real man and his devoted burro team, here is a book to remind us of the immense power stories have to connect us all."

T antalizing taste:
      "And far away in the hills, candles and lanterns burn as the children read borrowed books deep into their night, too."

and something more:   Jeanette Winter's picture book biography, Biblioburro, with her characteristically simple (in the best sense) text and colorful illustrations, truly captures the power of books to connect to people.  A New York Times article (Oct 19, 2008), written by Simon Romero states that the Biblioburro "idea came to [Luis Soriana] after he witnessed as a young teacher the transformative power of reading among his pupils, who were born into conflict even more intense than when he was a child."      
     The article concludes with the anecdote of an 18 year old young woman who "leafed through a copy of  'Margarita,' the classic book of poetry by Rubén Darío of Nicaragua, and began to read aloud. 

She went beyond where the heavens are

and to the moon said, au revoir.

How naughty to have flown so far

without the permission of Papa.

'That is so beautiful, Maestro,” [the young woman] said to the teacher. 'When are you coming back?'"

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